Thursday, 29 December 2011

Okay so I've posted updates about the various award nominations X-Men First Class has been raking in lately but it just struck me that I should have a dedicated post to this that will fill you guys on all the awards the movie has been nominated for or won! Cos let's face it- haters will hate, but the movie was AWESOME & it's run of garnering award nominations has only just begun!

UPDATE (8/1/2012): XFC is now part of the Academy's 10 choices for the eventual 5 contenders for the Best Visual Effects award.UPDATE (20/1/2012): Sammy Sheldon's costumes have been nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award!

AND after that recap, I come to the news I wanted to reveal to you guys in the first place! X-Men First Class has received not one, nor two nominations, but a total of four nods from the People's Choice Awards 2012(!) for the following categories:
1) Favorite Action Movie
2) Favorite Ensemble Movie Cast
3) Favorite Movie Superhero: James McAvoy (Professor X)
4) Favorite Movie Superhero: Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique)

AND as X-fans I think we oughta do our bit & vote for the flick! Cast your votes out here & keep your fingers (& toes) crossed till January 11, 2012 as that's when the event is gonna be telecast.

UPDATE (8/1/2012): Good news X-fans! After appearing in their top 15 choices for their Best Visual Effects prize, the Academy has now narrowed down to 10 contenders AND X-Men First Class has made that list! The following are the remaining 9 in alphabetical order:* Captain America: The First Avenger* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2* Hugo* Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol* Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides* Real Steel* Rise of the Planet of the Apes* Transformers: Dark of the Moon* The Tree of LifeThe official Academy Awards 2012 poster >

These 10 films have beat off competition from Cowboys & Aliens, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Sucker Punch, Super 8 & Thor. Let's keep our fingers crossed that XFC gets to the final 5...

UPDATE (20/1/2012): It's about time! Sammy Sheldon's AMAZING costumes for X-Men First Class are finally being recognized! He's garnered a nomination for Excellence in Fantasy Film from the Costume Designers Guild Awards! XFC goes against Harry Potter 7 Pt. 2, Pirates 4, Red Riding Hood & Thor. The winners will be announced on Feb 21. Sammy, we wish you luck!

Stay tuned on this post itself for more updates on the latest awards & nominations that the film may collect in the future!

Sunday, 18 December 2011

I first informed you guys that after adapting the first 6 issues of Joss Whedon & John Cassaday’s run on Astonishing X-Men in the Astonishing X-Men: Gifted motion comic series, Marvel Knights Animation will adapt the rest of the team’s run & they are starting with the Dangerous story arc next which follows Gifted in issues #7-12.

Covers of Astonishing X-Men Dangerous #7, 8, 9 & 10

Marvel managed to get some info & a few updates from Todd Casey, Supervising Producer on “Dangerous.” Casey works with Atomic Studios & is in charge of the entire production of each episode of the series (that he says takes about 14 weeks to complete each).

What challenges were faced in animating John Cassaday’s (see right >) art: "John is really a born director. His shot selection is impeccable & his characters have such expressive acting, which comes in really handy for what we’re doing. He brings the scenes to life with a cinematic realism that did us a world of good in the translation. The challenge in making his artwork move is that he uses a touch of charcoal around his line work. On the page, it gives it a wonderful texture, but when you blow up a small panel to the size of a TV screen, it can be tricky to preserve the detail in a line like that."

What makes Joss Whedon (< see left) & John Cassaday’s story so ripe for an animation adaptation: "Joss & John are really cinematic storytellers. Joss has well over a dozen seasons of TV under his belt, & he brought everything he learned in that time to his comic work. His scripts are airtight & there’s a liveliness to his style that keeps the pace going even in dialogue-heavy scenes." He then mentioned about the panel below saying the fact that just that panel became sort of an internet meme getting re-blogged on Tumblr by people who aren’t even X-Men fans, is testament enough to the power of John & Joss’ storytelling. About John he said that he selfishly wants "him around in comics for as long as possible, but he really belongs behind a lens making features. He has such an amazing eye."

What moment in Dangerous particularly excited him when he first saw the animation: "There’s a fight scene where the X-Men are battling a giant creature that’s come crashing through a New York City street. It’s a massive set-piece that gets even bigger when the Fantastic Four show up. As we (director Jesse Cote & Casey) were looking at the page, Jesse was telling me how the Blackbird is going to fly in from here & the Human Torch will zoom this way & Cyclops blasts there & the creature throws Colossus here while Wolverine is stabbing him & so on. I was staring at this single splash page thinking, “How the heck...?” When the animation came back & I saw it fully executed, I was really impressed & knew the Danger fight sequences & battle on Genosha were going to be amazing- & they are!"

^Covers of Astonishing X-Men Dangerous #11, 12, 12 v2

Todd revealed much more about the animation process that you can read at Marvel. Personally I'm pretty pumped to see how this new motion comic will be but I do hope they've improved the animation & got it more to the standard of Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers or Iron Man: Extremis. Though I loved the story of the Gifted motion comics, the animation imho errr....sucked. Let's hope for the best!

Monday, 12 December 2011

I'm sure you guys have already checked out the X-Men First Class concept art in my JUMBO post earlier. So I thought, "Hey why not do a post for the concept art for each of the other X-movies?!"

Then off I was, scouring the Net for all the X-concept art I could find! After creating polls on the X-Men, Comic Book Nerds Are Hot & Xavier's School for The Gifted Facebook groups & this is how the X-fans in all those 3 groups together voted:
X2- (A WHOPPING) 20!
X3- 8
X-Men- 5
X-Men Origins: Wolverine- 0
Just goes to show that most X-fans love X2 the most from the pre-XFC X-movies & would want to have absolutely nothing to do with X-Men Origins: Wolverine! Not a surprise really cos those are exactly my sentiments too...

And so it's been decided- concept art for X2 comes to you first!

Now unlike how I posted the art for XFC according to the characters, this time the art is according to the artist (you can click on their names to head on over to their sites). Oh, & you're not gonna just get concept art- no, no, you'll ALSO be getting Behind The Scenes looks at the costumes from X2 too! So buckle up & get ready for a blast from the past!

Concept art

Mark Goerner
Mark gives us concepts for Magneto's plastic prison (1), Stryker's containment area (2), Alkali Lake Dam areas (3-4), the Mansion raid (5-6) & the various areas of Stryker's base (7-15). 8, 11 & 14 are actual set photos to compare with the art that is before them...

James Oxford
Though some of his Nightcrawler concepts (1-5) made me cringe a bit (probably because some are nudes & some feature some sorta white skin/body war paint), his Rogue (16) is so HOT!!! Where was that Rogue in the original trilogy?! Also check out Magneto & his escape (6-8), Cyclops- 10, Jean Grey- 11, Wolverine- 12, Storm (13-14), Jason Stryker/Mutant 143- 15, Prof X- 17, Lady Deathstrike- 18.

Eric Rosenberg
1- The X2 logo that was used during production
2- Picture featuring various concepts for anti-mutant posters.

Guy Hendrix Dyas
Now this guy was the Production Designer for X2 but he's also done loads of concept art for the movie. However, it's not been easy to try & get em & I've only managed to get 1! :( As soon as I do get the rest they'll be up here...Below is his concept for Stryker's base.

About Me

I became a huge X-Men fanatic ever since I watched the first X-Men film back in 2000. Since then my voracious appetite for all things X has just grown & finally led me to starting my own blog in 2011. Hope you'll enjoy it!